The sweet memories of the days when America was a great land for a child and the sad beautiful nostalgia the great Tom Waits creates in these five minute of beauty.

“I’ll take the spokes of your wheelchairs, and a magpie’s wings…”, best listened to in the dark, when drunk.

The post FRIDAY VIDEO: Tom Waits and the wonderfully winsome Kentucky Avenue appeared first on Mob76 Outlook.

This list of 20 wonderful sites reporting on African innovation, technology, entrepreneurship should serve as a guide as where to find information. This will be a movable feast and updated every month to show how quickly things change in Africa.

So here are the Top 20 African tech blogs…

* AfriGadget – Solving everyday problems with African ingenuity

* Affrinnovator – Technology, innovation and entrepreneurship

* Afromusing – ‘Beyond Africa’ musings from one of Ushiandi’s founders

* Appfrica – Pan-African and Ugandan mobile technology

* Bankelele – Kenyan insights into African technology business

* Geek Rebel – African entrepreneurship and technology

* Human IPO – African technology news, startups, mobile and social

* IT News Africa – Technology, telecoms, mobile and gadget news

* Kiwanja – Where African tech and innovation meet anthropology

* Mobile Web Africa – Seminal trade events in Lagos, Nairobi and Johannesburg

* Mobithinking – African news on mobile marketing and advertising

* My Heart’s in Accra – Ethan Zuckerman reports from Ghana’s capital

* Open Source Africa – German language blog with excellent (English) info graphics

* Otekbits – News about African startups and developers

* Startup Africa – Growing African startups and small businesses

* Tech 360 – News, views and reviews

* Techloy – Nigerian-based comprehensive look at African Tech

* Tech Trends – ICT news from across Africa

* Timbuktu Chronicles – Entrepreneurship, innovation and technology

* White African – Where Africa and technology collide

The post The Top 20 African tech blogs and websites appeared first on Mob76 Outlook.

The ‘Tech City Futures’ Report was produced by reseearch company GfK and surveyed London’s businesses based out of Tech City. More than three quarters (77%) say a lack of skilled workers is restricting their growth
A third (33%) believe a lack of access to capital is hindering their business, and a similar number (29%) say as a consequence their company is missing significant business opportunities to expand.

There are mixed feelings about the effectiveness of Government support. While some initiatives have gained widespread support, others have been criticised for an emphasis on what some perceive as PR as opposed to helping develop Tech City’s infrastructure.

“This report highlights the ecosystem of entrepreneurship and how vitally important it is to have all the elements in place. 8.3% of Britain’s GDP comes from tech, and that is expected to rise to 12% by 2016. Our research shows Tech City is at a tipping point, and hopefully this report will help it find its way in spearheading that economic growth,” said Ryan Garner, Research Director for GfK.

The majority of Tech City businesses have vacancies they can’t fill. The top five skills most in demand are: coders & developers, marketing and PR, business development, web design and user experience specialists.

However, it’s not just recruitment but staff retention that is also a challenge. Tech City firms have recruited six people on average over the past year, but further growth is hindered because much of that activity has been to replace talent previously lost, rather than to create new jobs to support business expansion. 42% of Tech City businesses find it somewhat, or very difficult, to retain their best talent.

Tech City firms use on average 3.4 sources of finance with angel investors, venture capital and borrowing against personal assets being the most popular. The research shows that of the 43% of firms that have raised further capital, almost a quarter (23%) had problems, from the length of time it took, to investors/banks unwilling to take a risk.

To download the full report for free please click here.

* GfK interviewed 141 Founders, Chief Executives, Managing Directors, Chief Operating Officers and top-tier managers online between 25 March and 12 April 2013. Companies were sourced from TechCityInsider’s subscriber list of companies operating in the London tech sector.

The post London’s Tech City growth stunted by talent and capital shortage appeared first on Mob76 Outlook.

Founded in 2011 and graduates of the impressive Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST), the company will spend three months at 500 Start Ups head office in Mountain View and an extra month taking part in the program’s Demo Days and final investor meetings.

Dropifi were invited to join the program due to a meeting with Dave McClure, 500 Startups Founder, while they were in Rio to pick up a Kauffman Foundation-backed award at the Global Entrepreneurship Congress.

“Dropifi is the first African investment for 500 Startups. Very few seed investors in Silicon Valley will put money into markets as early as Africa, but we think differently. Dropifi has a killer team and a promising product with global reach. The fact that they hail from Ghana makes it even cooler,” explains Dave McClure.

Customers who use the Dropifi contact widget can see incoming message trending data in relation to industry metrics, see the demographic and social media profiles of the message senders and analyse the real sentiment behind the messages they receive.

Since launching on WordPress and Shopify late in 2012 there have been more than 8,000 downloads on WordPress and 900 Shopify stores are using the Dropifi widget to collect and analyze their incoming messages and leads.

The post Dropifi is first African company to join #500Strong Accelerator Program appeared first on Mob76 Outlook.

This is the best song I’ve heard all year… the voice of Valerie June beguiles and when the horn comes in, it’s time to jump on a boat to Mississippi and dance like a dervish in a Delta.

This is Workin’ Woman Blues…

The post We have a new genius in our midst – the awesome Valerie June appeared first on Mob76 Outlook.